Darwin, Botox, and The Brain's Outer Edge

One of Darwin's lesser known obsessions was with faces--how we make different faces, and what they say about us. Today, psychologists and neuroscientists are discovering the hidden conversation between brain and face, with a lot of tools Darwin never had--MRI scanners, subcutaneous eletrodes, and Botox. Botox? Indeed. In fact, some recent studies with Botox raise the weird possibility that our national love affair with that face-freezing drug may be subtly altering the emotions of millions of people. For more, check out my new column on the brain in the November issue of Discover. [Illustration from Darwin's The Expression of Emotions via Darwin Online]